06 August 2014 – Koh Kong: Braving a punishing sun, mushy ground and grimy labour, 22 Cambodian government officials participated in a week-long vital work, which will culminate in the first significant assessment of the country’s forests since 1962.

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) will use the inventory to obtain an accurate and reliable snapshot of its forests, its health, size, the species it contains, and the carbon content.

The inventory is part of a larger government effort to tackle climate change by reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. A sustainable management of natural resources in Cambodia will lead

FAO trains Cambodia to prepare for first ever national forestry inventorytext and photography by Botumroath Keo Lebun

the way in the fight against global warming.

The national forestry inventory (NFI) is designed through field trainings and workshops for government teams and other stakeholders. Forestry officer Mathieu Van Rijn from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provided technical guidance to the government’s core team by preparing them to train more staff at the appropriate time as part of a capacity-building effort.

Forest expert VanRijn, who oversees FAO’s support to the Cambodia UN-REDD National Programme explained the stakes: “The inventory provides a comprehensive account on the current condition of the forest to enable

FAO forestry officer Mathieu Van Rijn (right) explains to Officer Seng Rattanak (left) how to use Vertex laser

sustainable management practices of these resources, and is crucial for national and international reporting, especially if Cambodia is to take part in the REDD+ mechanism.” National forestry inventories are designed to assess a country’s forest biomass, carbon stocks and emission factors and make it possible to report emission reductions for REDD+.

REDD+ is short for Reduction of Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation, with the “+” signifying conservation, enhancement of carbon stocks and sustainable management. The initiative was developed by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which implemented mechanisms for industrialized nations with high emissions to provide financial and technical support to developing countries in order to reduce global emissions.

The REDD+ mechanism is foreseen to contribute to the reduction of emissions as soon as 2020. To participate in the REDD+ mechanism Cambodia is required to submit a periodic assessments of its forest emissions to the Convention.

Cambodia received international help to put this initiative into fruition. Within this context, FAO provided forestry inventory trainings to Cambodia to prepare the government for its national REDD programme.

FAO’s support in designing a multipurpose National Forestry Inventory (NFI) To implement the the training activity, FAO collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and Ministry of Environment (MoE). Local and international technical experts have conducted workshops and helped guide officers to measure sample plots.

The latest of several training sessions involved a core team of officers from MAFF and MoE to travel to Koh Kong province for more field training. Koh Kong province is known for the country’s most famous mountain range—the Cardamoms. Koh Kong’s Cardamom Mountains National Park in Smach Meany Chey district is well known for its diversified landscapes, from dense evergreen rainforests to lowland swamps and coastal mangroves, an ideal training ground to build teams competent.

When these officers successfully acquire the technical skill to collect, analyze and publish forest data, said VanRijn, they will be equipped to carry out the nation’s forest inventory.

Field Testing the Manual: on the job-training for core team“The core team is here in Koh Kong province to test the training manual and to further strengthen their skills to carry out a multipurpose national forest inventory design,” Van Rijn, interviewed during the field training, explained the process as he showed one of the officers the laser device. Vertex lasers are donated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency as part of toolkits. To

measure a sampling plot, officers will use the Vertex laser for height and distance measurement, a manual designed and tested during the training for userfriendliness, a handheld GPS for location identification, an inventory form. The developed manual was given to each participant to cross reference with the inventory sheet.Van Rijn provided technical expertise, while MAFF’s Forestry Administration officer, professor So Than, assisted him as team leader. As a forest professor with over two decades of teaching and field experiences, professor Than couldn’t stress enough how much more effective field work was compared to classroom training.

A team of Cambodian officers measure mangroves in the field plots as part of the nation’s forest inventory training

“This is the Cambodian style,” laughed the professor. “Field learning through seeing and doing.” One of the challenges the professor encountered with the core group was their indecisiveness to determine what plot shape (rectangular or circular) would be best suited to implement a nationwide forest census.

Vertex Laser to measure sampling plots: rectangular and circularIndeed, for fixed area plots and sub plots, some forest experts claim that using ropes to establish a rectangular plot is a lot easier because of the visibility to identify trees inside that plot. However, in a circular plot, one needs to image if the trees fall in or out of the plot.

In circular plots, the radius defines the size and which tree lies within the sampling plot. Vertex lasers facilitate this set-up, and can simultaneously be used to determine height of trees, saving additional time in the process.

The precision of the tool makes it easy to verify whether trees fall within the plot area or not if the tree is more than 10 meters from the plot centre, as Van Rijn explained. He acknowledged that it could also be used for rectangular plots to determine height of the trees or to measure distance from the plot boarder.

Core team experiences hardship during field training, Koh Kong ProvinceDespite the hardships outdoors, these 22 officers did not complain. Out in the hot blazing sun, they got their feet wet and hands dirty while measuring the sampling plots across the country, with a training manual in hand and a khrama (Cambodian traditional scarf) to shade from the unbearable heat. In addition to testing the manual and the Vertex laser, the officers also had the opportunity to test their skills with the full toolkit.

Working under extreme conditions the three teams were required to complete the questionnaire form on a number of forest settings: forest type, tree species, bark diameter, height (bole height and total height), defects, site quality, number of saplings and seedlings, and dead woods. The collected data can be used by a trained officer to calculate the volume of trees, as well as the biomass.

Officer Ngourn Sep, 45, from the government’s agricultural school of Prek Leap National School of Agriculture, who studied in Russia for seven years in the early 90s, said that after his third training in Koh

Kong and hands-on practice with the laser range finder, he felt more confident to go out in the field with a team of three to take on the forest inventory.

“After three field practices, I can now do the forest inventory on my own,” said Sep, jotting down information on the questionnaire form as fast as he received it from his colleagues.

He also seemed satisfied by his team’s progress. “My team completed our tasks faster than when we first started,” said Sep in search for a bottle of fresh water.

Team leader Seng Rattanak from the MoE, whose task was similar to Sep, reported similar results: “By the end of the week’s training, my teammates were skilled of using the equipments and are familiar with plot survey methods. Thus, we completed form in an hour.”

In the distance, Net Rachna was shouting the size of some sturdy tall trees. Seng wrote diligently as the numbers came in.

Seng’s colleague Net Rachna was in charge of measuring the diameter of the trunks. He gladly explained his task, now a second nature to him.

“I measure the diameter at breast height, mark the tree with a red spray can and move on to the next tree in the plot,” said Net.

Seng recalls that it wasn’t until his second field testing in Koh Kong and Siem Reap that he finally got to see progress. The field training in Koh Kong improved his skills by working closely with professors So Than and Van Rijn.

Ministries’ officers train to design a national forestry inventory

For information on National REDD+ Programme contact:

Cambodia REDD+ Programme Office: REDD+ Taskforce Secretariat #40, Prah Norodom Blvd., Forestry Administrative, Phnom Penh, CambodiaMobile Phone: (855) 23-224-251Website: www.cambodia-redd.org

FAO Representation in Cambodia#5, Street 370, Boeung Keng Kang IKhan Chamcamorn-Phnom Penh CambodiaTel: (855) 23-216-566 or 023-211-702Fax: (855) 23-216-547http://coin.fao.org/cms/world/cambodia/Home.html

“I know how to fill out the data in the questionnaire form,” said Seng proudly. “But analyzing the data that was collected is a problem as I lack skills in this area.” When asked which sampling plot Seng preferred, he chose the “circular plot” because of the easy set-up.

A major challenge in performing the forest inventory included the teams’ lack of knowledge in identifying the tree species in the sampling plots.

“One of the sampling plots consisted of 38 tree species. We had trouble in identifying the names of trees,” Sep complained.

Officer Sep suggested that a local publication on identification of tree species would be useful in his line of work.

“For the tiny trees that we cannot identify, we cut the leaves off and put them in our pockets to ask the experts and locals,” said Sep, as he stuffed some green leaves into his khaki pants pockets.

Next StepsThe success of the implementation of the forest inventory depends on the officers’ understanding of “what and why the data is used for,” as professors Than and Van Rijn put it.

By the end of the one week field training, professor Than observes about 90 percent of the 22 officers were well- equipped in the technical know-how, but lacked skills in collating and computing the inventory results into meaningful and practical data.

When asked about the relevance of the drafted training manuals given to the officers in the field, professor Than expressed his satisfaction, through his black-rimmed spectacles “the training manual was designed just right for the officers to understand.”

The manual for the forestry inventory will be translated to Khmer. Copies of the forestry training manual will be distributed to relevant ministries and development partners, said Van Rijn, as he wiped the sweats rolling down his forehead with a khrama.

Cambodian officers in the field to measure three types of forests- rear, mangroves and evergreen, Koh Kong

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